Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha anointed Thailand's interim prime minister

General Prayuth Chan-ocha tightened his junta's grip on Thailand on Thursday, as the country's puppet parliament named him prime minister, three months after the May 22 coup.

In a surreal session in Bangkok's once disputatious legislature, MPs handpicked by the military, including many serving officers, stood up one by one to confirm the putsch leader as their choice without debate or dissent.

While Gen Prayuth has not been formally appointed and was not even present at the vote, it is widely expected he will take on the post as part of the junta's widening efforts to reshape Thailand's turbulent politics and stuttering economy.

The unanimous parliamentary approval for the general was widely flagged and comes after the legislature this week rubber-stamped a draft budget proposed by the military that promises big spending increases for defence, education and transport.

Gen Prayuth, who is due to retire as army chief next month, must wait for the endorsement of his premiership by King Bhumibol Adulyadej but most analysts think that will be a formality in a country where relations between the two institutions are close.

Other leaders of Thailand's dozen successful military coups since 1932 have also taken on the premiership, although some of their terms became plagued by opposition and unrest.

Gen Prayuth's junta crushed dissent in the weeks after the coup, detaining hundreds of politicians, activists and academics, and deploying security forces to quell small flash mob protests and irreverent acts such as making the anti-totalitarianism three-fingered salute from the film The Hunger Games.

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The military points to moderate improvements in the economy and consumer and investor confidence since the takeover, with official data this week showing Thailand avoided a feared fall into recession in the second quarter of the year.

But critics see the putsch as the vanguard of a conservative counter-revolution that aims to drag the country back towards a past of absolute monarchy, feudalism and servility of the poor to the rich. Some opponents of the regime have fled Thailand and launched what they style as a "Free Thai" movement to campaign for a return to electoral democracy before the date of late-2015 promised by the military.

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Profile: General Prayuth Chan-ocha

General Prayuth Chan-ocha is a blunt loyalist of the country's monarchy who has emerged as an emblem for conservative forces in the long-running power struggle rending southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

Head of the army and a scion of the dominant "Eastern Tigers" faction named for its base near the Cambodian border, the general began his career in the 21st Infantry, or Queen's Guard. Thursday is, perhaps not coincidentally, an auspicious day for him be nominated as prime minister by the military's handpicked national parliament: it is the 21st of the month, the Queen's Guard annual day, and just over a week after Queen Sirikit's 82nd birthday.

A stocky 60-year-old who is due to retire from the army next month, Gen Prayuth was an important figure in the 2006 coup against Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former premier at the heart of Thailand's political strife. Almost eight years on, Gen Prayuth ousted a pro-Thaksin government backed largely by "red shirts" from the country's rural areas, but crippled by months of street protests by monarchist pro-military "yellow shirts" drawn in good part from the country's traditional urban elite.

Since taking power, Gen Prayuth has presented himself as protector, teacher of homespun wisdom and unbiased and efficient troubleshooter of Thailand's political troubles.

"Thai people are capable," he told MPs this week. "Many of them are nearly clever but others are not so smart. We need to help each other."

While Gen Prayuth's rule and style are not to everyone's taste and have provoked samizdat mockery from some, few dare speak openly while opposition is forbidden and any perceived criticism of the monarchy - however tangential - is punishable by up to 15 years in jail.

@mikepeeljourno

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